HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nText below written by Steve Barker and ripped off from the marvelous skysaw.org site.<\/p>\n
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Roydell Johnson (a.k.a. Congo Ashanti Roy), a native of Hanover, Jamaica, grew up singing spirituals at home and cut his teeth as a member of Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus. More importantly, Ashanti Roy attended school with Lee Perry, the start of a relationship that would lead to Perry producing him in later years. A chance meeting led to Ashanti Roy and Cedric Myton working together under the name The Congos, and hooking up with such major musical talents as Sly Dunbar and Ernest Ranglin. While the music that backed The Congos was undeniably great, their most distinctive feature was their voices: Ashanti Roy\u2019s strong, clear tenor, and Cedric Myton\u2019s breathtaking falsetto.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Congos were primarily known for one record, \u2018Heart Of The Congos\u2019, released in 1977, and in possibly the crowning masterpiece of his career, produced by Lee Perry at his Black Ark studios in Kingston. What Perry brought to the mix was his usual anarchic presence, but also his technique of using primitive (even for its time) four-track recording technology that emphasized a cluttered, dense, but hot live sound.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGreat though it was, \u2018Heart Of The Congos\u2019 sold only reasonably well in Jamaica, but became a hotly sought-after collectible in the USA and Britain by a cult of reggae aficionados. Not long after the record was released, Myton and Ashanti Roy went their separate ways but continued to use the name the Congos or Congo as a means of identification.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLeaving Jamaica for the UK following a less creatively successful period, Ashanti Roy was brought to On-U Sound by his friend Mikey Dread in the early 1980s; both subsequently becoming contemporary contributors to the Singers And Players\u2019 family. Like a lot of other reggae artists of the time who had been the victims of brief flirtations with major labels, Ashanti Roy was looking for work and a deal.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAware of the growing reputation of On-U Sound, he arrived at Southern Studios with several great tunes that were to become On-U conscious classics, including \u201cAfrican Blood\u201d and \u201cBreaking Down the Pressure\u201d the latter undoubtedly the tougher tune and probably also superior in that the studio production from Adrian Sherwood is him at his crazed best. In 1984, in another major collaboration, Ashanti Roy also drafted in Sherwood to engineer and\/or mix most of his solo album \u2018Level Vibes\u2019, released on Sonic Boom Records.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt is probably true to say that no individual from The Congos went on to produce any solo work which approached the enduring quality of \u2018Heart Of The Congos\u2019, however Ashanti Roy\u2019s work for On-U Sound was definitely as near as he got. All of his early On-U cuts are strong lyrical tunes which constitute the singer\u2019s best efforts away from the magisterial hand of Mr. Perry.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAshanti Roy still makes occasional appearances on On-U projects to this day, most recently on Sherwood produced material by Junior Degado and Charlie \u201cEskimo Fox\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"African Blood Hands And Hearts Special dedication to Dan I \u2013 Many more ONU Sound 10\u2033 on this site right HERE\u00a0 Hear the original 1977 Congo\u2019s on Upsetter Records on this site right HERE Text below written by Steve Barker and ripped off from the marvelous skysaw.org site. Roydell Johnson (a.k.a. Congo Ashanti Roy), a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-downloads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1982"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1987,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions\/1987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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